A 33-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly assaulting Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) as retaliation for her recent crusade against trans rights.

“I was physically accosted at the Capitol tonight by a pro-tr*ns man,” Mace wrote on X. It’s unclear why she is now starring out the word trans, but based on her anti-trans views, she may be trying to communicate that it is some sort of dirty word.

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She then spent the weekend attacking trans people and calling them slurs.

“One new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm and it’ll heal just fine,” she continued. “The Capitol police arrested the guy. Your tr*ns violence and threats on my life will only make me double down. FAFO. #HoldTheLine.”

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A statement from U.S. Capitol Police confirmed they arrested foster youth advocate James McIntyre of Illinois for allegedly assaulting Mace after lawfully entering the building through security. Sources told Axios the incident occurred at an event for the Foster Youth Caucus, of which Mace is a co-chair.

Three eyewitnesses, however, have accused Mace of manufacturing the assault, saying Mace and McIntyre shared nothing more than a standard handshake while he asked the Congresswoman to protect trans rights.

“From what I saw, it was a normal handshake and interaction that I would expect any legislator to expect from anyone as a constituent,” former foster youth and LGBTQ+ rights advocate Elliot Hinkle told Imprint.

Hinkle added that the arrest of McIntyre – who is also a former foster youth – “sends a chilling effect of, you’re not actually safe to go to the Capitol Hill and share an opinion that is true for you, that isn’t violent — because right now if you do, a congressperson might say that they were physically assaulted and call the police on you. So how would a young person in care feel safe?”

In a Facebook post, foster youth advocate Lisa Dickson railed against Mace for her behavior at the event: “I want to express deep disappointment in the fact that Congresswoman Nancy Mace came to a national foster youth event, told participating youth that it was a safe space — and literally had one of them arrested by Capital police for simply shaking her hand and asking about trans rights.”

She added in a follow-up: “Today was not the day or the time for a self-serving publicity stunt – especially not a politician lashing out at a vulnerable young person who just took her at her word that, when helping foster youth, ‘all suggestions are welcome.”’

Mace, who has a long history of anti-trans politics, has been on a tear since trans Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) won her race for Congress in November.

In response to McBride becoming the first trans person ever elected to Congress, Mace introduced a resolution banning trans women from using the women’s facilities at the Capitol, as well as legislation to ban trans people from using restrooms on all federal property. This is despite the facts that trans people have been working at and visiting the Capitol for years without incident and that McBride would get her own private bathroom as a member of Congress.

While her resolution hasn’t been voted on, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has already put in place a rule banning trans people from using the restroom that corresponds to their gender at the Capitol complex.

Over the past several weeks, Mace has continued to escalate her anti-trans rhetoric and recently began casually using an anti-trans slur.

After trans rights protestors demonstrated against her, she made a video for social media in which she stated, “Alright, so some tr***y protestors showed up at the Capitol today to protest my bathroom bill, but they got arrested, poor things. So I have a message for the protestors who got arrested. You ready?”

She then pulled out a bullhorn, despite already being audible through her microphone, and read the standard Miranda rights into the bullhorn while facing the police office. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

In response to uproar about her use of the slur, she wrote on X, “If ‘tr*nnies’ is considered a slur then ‘cis’ should be too.”

And it seems she is now regularly spouting the bigoted word.

Mace has been using transphobia to build her political career since before she was elected to Congress. In her first campaign for Congress, she made up a law that she claimed required “transgender equality in the military,” said that her Democratic opponent was responsible for it, and said that it would result in a Marine Corps base in her district getting shut down. It was all a lie – there was no such law and the Marine base is still in operation today – but it helped her secure her seat in Congress.

In her second run for Congress, she accused her opponent of providing “SEX CHANGE SURGERY. PUBERTY BLOCKERS. GENDER CHANGING HORMONES. FOR CHILDREN?” in an ad, even though her opponent was a doctor who worked at a hospital that didn’t provide gender-affirming care for trans people at all. Her opponent was forced to resign from her job.

Mace has a poor record on LGBTQ+ rights in Congress, getting scores of 15 and 14 out of 100 on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard, and she even voted against the Equality Act, which would ban discrimination against LGBTQ+ people at the federal level, and against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act because it would give some protections to transgender inmates.

In her effort to stop McBride from using the women’s restrooms at the Capitol, Mace has referred to McBride as “it” and as a “man.” She has also started selling anti-trans t-shirts and said that it’s “offensive” that McBride thinks she’s “equal” to other congresswomen.

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